The Best Espresso Beans for Your Café, and the Buying Mistakes to Avoid

Written by Tiny Tiger Coffee

The machine was installed on Monday. You open on Saturday. Now the technician is wiping the steam wand and asks, "Which beans are you using?" You have three sample bags on the counter and no idea how to choose.

Every new café owner hits this moment. You don't need to be a coffee expert to choose well. You need four simple checks, and a few mistakes to steer clear of.

What makes espresso beans "the best" for a café

The best espresso beans for a café:

• Were roasted recently, with the roast date printed on the bag
• Have rested at least 10 days before you use them
• Taste good in a cappuccino, not just as a black shot
• Taste the same every delivery, month after month

A famous name or the lowest price per kilo isn't on the list. Your regulars taste only the cup you hand them every day.

Check 1: the roast date, and the rest

Look for a roast date on every bag, not just a "best before" date. A bag with only an expiry date could have been roasted months ago.

Then give the beans time. Freshly roasted coffee is full of carbon dioxide, which makes shots gassy, uneven and sharp.

• Don't use beans in their first 10 days after roasting.
• From day 10 to about day 60 or 70, a medium or darker roast is at its best if stored sealed and cool.
• Plan orders so a new bag has rested before the old one runs out.

Our guide to buying coffee beans in bulk for a café shows how much to order for the cups you sell.

Check 2: the right roast level for your menu

Most Indian cafés sell far more cappuccinos and lattes than black espresso. Milk softens flavour, so you want beans that still taste of something once the milk goes in.

• Medium-dark roasts taste of caramel, chocolate and nuts, which come through milk clearly. This is the safest house espresso.
• Medium roasts are fruitier and brighter. They shine black but can taste thin under a lot of milk.
• Very dark roasts hide the coffee behind a burnt, bitter edge, which is why cheap blends lean on them.

Check 3: let the cappuccino decide

Most of your orders will be milk drinks. A coffee that's exciting as a black shot but disappears under 150 ml of milk is the wrong house espresso.

• Pull each candidate with our house recipe: 18 g of coffee in, 30 to 40 g out, in 27 to 30 seconds.
• If a shot runs under 18 seconds, grind finer; over 35 seconds, grind coarser. Change one thing at a time.
• Taste it black, then make a cappuccino with the milk you'll actually serve.

Choose the coffee you can still taste through the milk. Our guide to tasting and choosing your house coffee walks through a full side-by-side tasting, and our post on espresso that tastes bitter or sour explains what to change when a shot tastes off.

Check 4: will it taste the same next month?

Your barista dials in, the café builds a following, and three months later a new delivery tastes different. Now every cappuccino needs re-learning. Ask any supplier two questions:

• Where does the coffee come from? If they buy beans on the open market, the coffee can change whenever their source does.
• Do they keep stock of what they roast? If they run out, you'll be switched to something else, often without warning.

Our checklist for choosing a coffee supplier has the full list of questions.

Common buying mistakes

• Choosing on price per kilo. A cheaper bag saves a few rupees a cup, but a cup that doesn't bring people back costs far more. Our wholesale price guide explains what you get at each price.
• Brewing beans the week they arrive. Unrested beans make sour shots, and the beans get blamed.
• Judging a coffee before it's dialled in. Follow our espresso dial-in guide first.
• Tasting with the wrong milk. Our café milk guide covers why full cream works best.
• Switching suppliers for every new quote. Each switch means re-dialling and a taste your regulars didn't ask for.

How we roast for cafés

We grow, process and roast our own coffee at Hoysala Estate in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, and we hold stock of everything we roast. Your next delivery comes from the same farm and the same roast profile as the last one.

For espresso, cafés usually choose between:

• Caramel Espresso: 100% arabica, caramel and summer mango, made for cappuccinos.
• Toasted Almond: smooth and nutty, made for milk-based drinks.
• Cookie Bandit: 100% arabica, caramel, brown sugar and chocolate.
• Frozen Candy: a 100% arabica natural, sweet enough for black espresso.

The easiest way to choose is our paid Café Sampler: two to four of our café coffees, roasted for you. Let them rest 10 days, then taste them on your own machine with your own milk. Once you've chosen, café pricing starts from ₹1,200 a kilo, with a 5 kg minimum order, and each 5 kg order ships free to metro cities within 3 working days.

If you want to become a B2B partner of Tiny Tiger, take a look at our café program and get in touch. We'll help you choose your house espresso and get it dialled in on your machine.

Common questions

What roast is best for espresso in a café?

For most Indian cafés, a medium-dark roast. Its caramel and chocolate flavours carry through milk, and most café orders are cappuccinos and lattes.

How long should espresso beans rest after roasting?

At least 10 days. A medium or darker roast then stays at its best until about day 60 or 70 if kept sealed and cool.